Mount Gambier
32 Barkers Road HAWTHORN, Boroondara City
Fairmount Park Estate Precinct
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Statement of Significance
Mount Gambier, 32 Barkers Road, Hawthorn, is of historical and architectural significance at a local level. It is a fine and substantially intact example of a 'Federation Italianate' style that flourished in the 1890s. It is also associated with architect John A B Koch who was a noted designer, responsible for a number of important houses in Melbourne including Labassa. The subject house also fuses late nineteenth-century Italianate elements with Federation and later nineteenth century free style elements in an accomplished manner. Few of its additions are visible from Barkers Road, and the house dominates its corner position with its rich detail and striking architectural features such as jerkin-headed gables and return verandah.
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Mount Gambier - Physical Description 1
Mount Gambier, 32 Barkers Road, Hawthorn, is a richly detailed house from the early to middle Federation period, built in 1897-98. It has some Federation characteristics: chimneys with short straps near their tops, walls in exposed red brick with double rowed cream-brick course lines, and a concern for climate evident in the northeastern verandah alignment and the perforated screens over upper windows. The gable brackets are Queen Anne in their stylization, and the use of verandah lace has been minimized. Also reflective of the Federation style, Mount Gambier dominates the street corner site with a concentration of detail and projected vigor. The buildings' general form and details also incorporate Italianate elements, such as the return verandah, paired wing windows with segmental arches and scroll consoles, a hipped roof with slate tile cladding and galvanized iron ridge capping, and a separate bull-nose verandah roof in striated galvanized iron, with boxed and bracketed eaves. The verandah is missing some of its lacework and frieze bracketing on the Findon Street side. The jerkin-headed gables facing east and north are unusual, and were a motif associated with early architectural reformism, being advocated by Viollet-le Duc and others at the 'free style' end of the French beaux-arts system. They are also found in Victoria's school architecture, of the late 1870s and early 1880s. With Mount Gambier's wall striping and crisp-carved window detailing, these elements lend the house a High Victorian, rather Gothic Revival energy which is not usual in the Italianate mode. The front door has an original case which is characteristically Italianate; a door in the return verandah appears to be later, and the windows are a more recent plate glass. The long rear east side elevation, to Findon Street, is evident in the 1902 MMBW plan, although this has been altered externally through the addition and alteration of openings. A glazed belvedere and other additions have been made behind the house in more recent years, along with a red brick garage (1965) opening onto an alley at the rear.[i] A chimney has been removed from the roof on the east side, facing Findon Street. The iron picket fence is of recent origin, although set in a bluestone footing. The cottage garden complements the house setting.
[i] Details sourced from City of Hawthorn Building Index, Permit #5881, dated 21 April 1965.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Review of C* Grade Buildings in the Former City of Hawthorn
Author: Lovell Chen Architects & Heritage Consultants
Year: 2006
Grading: C*Boroondara - Hawthorn Heritage Study
Author: Meredith Gould Conservation Architects
Year: 1993
Grading:Boroondara - Neighbourhood Character Precinct 24 - Heritage Citations
Author: Context
Year: 2015
Grading: S
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